Have any of you lived abroad and returned to Canada? Share your experiences.
 

I grew up in Toronto and moved to the US when I was 22. Lived there for 6 years and came back to Toronto about 9 months ago. Effectively, for the majority of my adult life, I've lived in the US.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this experience and just wanted to share and hear what you all have to say.

Some of my feelings on this matter:
- When I was living in the US, I had a romanticized image of Canada and was yearning to come back home.

- Now that I'm in Canada, I'm missing the US. It doesn't help that there is no such thing as Canadian media. All we get is US media, which tends to portray the US in a positive light, which only feeds into further missing the US.

- When I was living in the US, I had a romanticized view of Canadian winters. I lived mainly in Denver and you'd get some snow now and then, and some Canada-like night time lows. But goodness, I was wrong to compare. Toronto winters are utterly brutal. A cold day or two here and there is one thing, but 3 months where going outside is literally painful is too much. It takes like 20 minutes of dressing up to go outside and it is still painful once you are out there. Feels like an Arctic expedition just to go get some fucking groceries.

- There's not much of a difference in the work culture if you're a white collar professional. I feel that we work just as hard as Americans if not harder for a fraction of the wages. The wages are abysmal. I was literally making twice as much to do the same job, although it's even worse hours here. On top of that, Toronto professional work culture is snobby. Denver had a laid-back West Coast work culture (although it is not on the West Coast). Of course if you're working at McDonald's or something, Canada is much better.

- People here are polite but cold and distant.

- There's better coverage of hockey in Canada, which is nice.

- Beyond that, none of my mixed feelings relate to Canada or Toronto specifically. It's just the usual challenges of "coming back home". Newsflash: if you've been away from "home" for an extended period of time, there is no "home" to return to. You're effectively starting anew.

On the bright side, I love that I'm a citizen of Canada rather than someone on a work visa in the US. I can vote. I can leave my job without any concern of deportation.

Well maybe you should move back there if you truly miss it and want to be an American. All the power to you good sir.

I've spent roughly half my adult life living elsewhere, primarily in tropical or subtropical parts of Asia.

Whenever I was away, my mind was far from Canada, not thinking about it much or missing it. But upon returning home, the miracle that is Canada immediately presented itself to me in all its glory: people are friendly (a bit distant, yes) and respectful in every sense of the word; things work (what a miracle!); and life is predictable and safe.

Perhaps this is why I've become so fiercely loyal to my country in recent years or at least the values which we hold dear. Canada is a complete and total outlier in this regard; there can't be more than 20 or perhaps 30 other countries that come even close. Even places I love, like Spain and Portugal, are comparatively dysfunctional by several measures and have long histories of tyrannical governments turning against its populace. Even today, distrust of government and endless amounts of red tape remain standard in many parts of Southern Europe.

I think everyone in the West should spend time outside their country; it's the most efficient way to learn how good we all have it. Yes, as if it needs to be said, it's not perfect. But it's a thousand times better than almost everywhere else on the planet, so let's handle what we've created with care.

Now, if only we could do something about the weather. My years in the tropics have made me soft and useless during these interminable winters...

I'm afraid I have some bad news about the rest of the country, then. If you're only quoting this to provoke yet another argument about the climates of either coastal province, I will personally see to it that your access to this forum is temporarily abridged. Or not. I can't actually control that.

It's not like that dude / dudette. Just struggling with coming back home so to speak. Wanted to see if ya'll had similar or different experiences.

You should take some of your abysmal wages and invest in a decent parka.

If it takes you 20 minutes to put on a coat and boots, you're doing it wrong.

I have lived abroad several times for varying lengths (as short as four months to 2.5 years), all in Europe (Zürich-Winterthur (2X), Vienna, Milan, and Munich). From those places I returned home to Canada (Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver) once to a pretty brutal Montreal winter. Every time, I loved getting back home. Love everything about the place.

I consider myself fortunate/blessed, depending on your worldview, to have lived abroad for several periods of time. My family lived for almost a year in Switzerland when I was a boy. I later studied five years in the US and three years in Britain. Most recently I lived eight months in a village in the south of France. Also there was a year in Scotland but I was too young to remember it so that doesn’t count. I loved wherever I was with the partial exception of a work experience year in a coal mining town in West Virginia. Poverty, moonshiners, snake handlers but also some great people from whom I learned a lot.

It was probably a harder adjustment returning home after much shorter experiences in some terribly poor locations, such as a South American favela or an African slum. Any transition within the developed world is far less marked than returning from the so called third world. The awareness that many people I met would have felt living in my garage would be a giant step forward is hard to accept. Maybe I shouldn’t be able to accept it.

With respect to the developed countries in which. I lived, I loved being away and I loved coming home. I am fiercely proud of this country which, in the end, is home to me and those I hold dear. Even in the winter I wouldn’t live anywhere else.

I think you may have to change your speech pattern a bit if you do come back :cheers::cheers:

Agreed..and to think that the OP finds Toronto winters to be brutal.:shrug::shrug:

I think about coming back, but it's probably going to be a while yet.

I have a hard time criticizing someone who has actually lived in both places when I have not but I find his paragraph about the weather very hyperbolic when you look at the statistics.

Denver averages more snow than Toronto and its overnight lows (his biggest complaint) are within a degree or two of Toronto (using Pearson Toronto is colder, using the Annex Toronto is warmer). In essence they are exactly the same in that regard and yet that is his biggest gripe. Denver does have Toronto handlily beat when it comes to date time highs (about 7C) but even still Toronto averages out to 0C, it ain't that bad.

:previous:

All things are relative. I've seen reporters on air reporting from SoCal during live events where the air temperature is about 7C with gloves, a toque and wearing a heavy jacket. That would be shorts weather up here in the Great White North! :haha:

Denver is quite far South (same latitude as California or Sardinia). I have never been in the winter, but I would think it would feel quite a bit warmer in the sun than Toronto.

I lived in Europe for 3 years about a decade ago. I didn’t have too much trouble to readjusting to Canada. There are definitely things I missed: non-Taliban approach to alcohol, cheap flights, the ability to go to some random 1000 year old town at the drop of a hat. But what won me over pretty quick was how damn functional Canada is. Public services generally work, private services generally work, somebody will usually help you if you have a problem, infrastructure is usually maintained. That just doesn’t happen in a lot of places.

Don’t forget the effect of altitude. It’s nickname is the Mile High City. It’s a great city to live in if you are a skier. The Front Range of the Rockies are easily visible on a clear day.

This. I also spent 3 years in Europe and I didn’t have trouble readjusting when I came back. The things I miss are pretty much what you mentioned. I am a huge history geek and I find Canada is lacking on that front. What I don’t miss is cities looking like ghost towns on Sundays. Even going somewhere for a coffee was a struggle.

You should try Atlantic Canada. Lots of old forts and citadels and historical reconstructions. Some communities can date their origin back 300-400 years.

Near Moncton, the first Acadian settlements in the Beaubassin region are about 320 years old. Fort Beausejour/Fort Cumberland saw two major battles (one in the Seven Years War, the other in the Revolutionary War), and there is a record of skirmishes up the Petitcodiac River valley before and immediately following the Expulsion. The history around here is fascinating.

Between studies, work, and extended holidays, I’ve spent about 18 of the last 40 years abroad. Every time I return to Canada, I feel gratitude that I’m Canadian and, in particular, that I’m back in Ottawa, which offers such a simple, comfortable, and tranquil lifestyle.